Sterling Nursing and Rehab: Dishwasher Temp Failures - TX
The machine's own posted instructions say to report to a supervisor if the wash temperature drops below 120 degrees Fahrenheit. The wash cycle never once hit that threshold during the morning shift across the entire first ten days of the month. On September 1, it reached 95 degrees. The logbook, filled out three times a day by kitchen staff, recorded this faithfully, day after day, meal after meal.
Nobody reported it.
On September 10, at 1:38 in the afternoon, an inspector watched a dietary aide identified in the report as DA H run the machine three times. The wash temperature reached 100 degrees. The sanitizer cycle hit 114. DA H read the instructions posted on the machine, then said he needed to tell the Dietary Manager.
He had not told anyone before that moment.
The Dietary Manager came, confirmed the machine wasn't reaching the right temperature, took a photograph of the dial, and sent it to the Maintenance Director. That was the chain of notification, set in motion only after an inspector was standing there watching.
The next day, DA H told the inspector he had known something was wrong since the weekend. The machine was new. He thought someone had turned down the water temperature because it hadn't been working right. He said he didn't report it because he didn't realize it needed to be reported.
The administrator told the inspector the machine had just been swapped out. His explanation for the temperature problem: he thought maintenance had lowered the water temperature in order to raise the sanitization level. Then he said he didn't actually know. He said he wasn't there.
When the inspector asked for the facility's policy on dish sanitization, none was provided.
The logbook tells the fuller story. Across morning, noon, and evening wash cycles from September 1 through September 10, the wash temperature, the first and most basic stage of the cleaning process, never consistently met the 120-degree threshold. The noon shift was the worst. On September 1, the noon wash ran at 100 degrees. On the 2nd, 105. It climbed slowly across the week, reaching 114 by September 10, still six degrees short. The evening shift fared somewhat better, but the September 1 evening wash ran at 105 degrees.
The final rinse temperatures looked closer to acceptable across most days, hitting 120 or above in many entries. But the wash cycle, which is supposed to remove food debris and begin the sanitation process before the final rinse, was consistently failing. A machine that sanitizes at the right temperature but doesn't wash at the right temperature is not doing its job in the right order.
The manufacturer's posted instructions on the machine itself put it plainly: use 140-degree water, and report to your supervisor if it drops below 120. The instructions were undated. They were hanging on the machine the whole time.
Inspectors cited the violation as affecting many residents and classified the level of harm as minimal harm or potential for actual harm, noting the failures placed residents at risk of foodborne illness. Sterling Nursing and Rehab is a small facility serving a rural West Texas community, and every resident who ate a meal off dishes run through that machine during those ten days ate off dishes that were not cleaned to the standard the machine's own manufacturer required.
The dietary aide who ran the machine knew. He logged the temperatures himself, or someone did, three times a day, and the numbers were there in the book. He said he didn't know it needed to be reported. The administrator said he didn't know what maintenance had done or why. The facility had no written policy that might have told either of them what to do.
The logbook sat in the kitchen for ten days, recording temperatures that fell short of the posted instructions on the wall above it, and the dishes kept coming out, and the meals kept going out, and no one said a word.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Sterling Nursing and Rehab from 2025-09-11 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Additional Resources
Data source: Official federal inspection data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
Editorial process: AI-synthesized regulatory data, reviewed for accuracy by our editorial team.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: June 29, 2026 · Our methodology
Sterling Nursing and Rehab in STERLING CITY, TX was cited for violations during a health inspection on September 11, 2025.
The machine's own posted instructions say to report to a supervisor if the wash temperature drops below 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
Health inspections identify deficiencies that facilities must correct. Violations range from minor documentation issues to serious safety concerns. Review the full report below for specific details and facility response.